Why Quandeel’s father wants his son to be shot dead

“Let’s open our minds and live in the present”. “Qandeel’s videos making rounds on social media could not be tolerated, hence I myself made a decision to kill her. I am not ashamed of my act”, he said. He is being investigated for her murder along with Baloch’s two brothers.

Pakistan will finally pass a law banning “honor killings”, days after social media star Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother.

Baloch recently sparked a major controversy in Pakistan by posting pictures of herself with Mufti Qavi, a prominent Muslim cleric.

Baloch’s mother said she used to share all her secrets with her. “We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets”. But she also knew the cost of doing so.

Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security. “She pushed boundaries in a way that the majority of Pakistani women would not have thought was even possible”. He has admitted to strangling his sister to death for the “honour of the family”. “I have no regrets”, he told journalists in a press conference.

“She was my son, not a daughter”.

Human Rights Watch’s Pakistan researcher Saroop Ijaz calls honor killings “a violation of multiple human rights” and a problem that is pervasive there, adding that throughout Pakistani society there are “expressions of misogyny”.

A 2005 amendment to the law pertaining to honour killings prevented men who kill female relatives pardoning themselves as an “heir” of the victim.

Unfortunately, these killings are not a thing of the past; an estimated 1,000 Pakistani women are killed this way every year. Some 500 Pakistani women die from “honor killings” each year. The country has a problem of patriarchy, but also one of extreme intolerance, as different groups try to lay claim to the country’s identity. And while it’s not as common, women also face deadly violence for refusing men’s advances. Police have included the slain model’s sister-in-laws in her murder investigation as well.

If passed into law, the legislation would remove a loophole which now allows other family members to pardon a killer.

On July 14, Baloch told a reporter she feared for her life due to threats, and planned to move overseas with her parents after failing to receive protection from authorities. One hopes the court orders him to look at his own finger. Larry is our main news editor.